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Batteries for your skydiving electronics

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I just read on Facebook where a friend of mine is out of town and needed replacement batteries for his device. He went to one of the specialty battery places and they actually did not have the battery that they said they had.

Well, this time of year is a good time for everyone to get out their devices, see what kind of batteries they use, and order some spares from a place that has good prices and probably has them in stock. (At least you can do a search on their web site for stock.).

An internet search using the battery type and the word "substitute" will provide a lot of good information too.

In the US, my suggestion is full fledged electronics supplier like Mouser Electronics (www.mouser.com), but there are many others. (Mouser has the advantage of not having a minimum order, so if you are willing to pay a minimum for shipment for such a lightweight order, you can do that.)

However, in the spirit of taking care of your batteries during the winter so you will have spares when you need them, I suggest contacting your friends and have them check their devices for what kind of batteries they use, and order a bunch of different types.

Keep in mind that most of these batteries have a very long shelf life, so it is very unlikely that they will "go bad".

Another good time to do this would be Safety Day (which will be here sooner than you realize!)

DZO's, this includes you. You might even be able to make a few bucks off skydivers during the year. There is great value in having what they need in your display case.

DZO's, here is another piece of advice about batteries. Make sure your 1. handheld aircraft radios, and your 2. student radio transmitter, have batteries that are not too old. I have found that for radios that spend much of their life sitting in a charger at the DZ, that 2 years is a reasonable replacement cycle. Of course your mileage may vary. (Remember that it takes more battery capacity to transmit than to receive, especially if your instructor guidance style is to keep the transmit switch pressed for long periods of time.)

This has been a Public Service Announcement from an old electronics guy.

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Gary,

Quick note to watch that some of the internet substitute batteries do not perform well - or not at all..

I have discovered that some batteries have the same "fit" for what we need; but not the same mAh rating..

Yep, those little old milliamps make a big difference in the devices. The amount of draw they can handle (like turning on the Viso2 light before you jump) can cause some things not to work right. Or, they just die early...

Now, there are so many brands out there - some will probably work great..

I just decided to go back to the manufacture-recommended brands for their equipment... I can get months/year out of my audible and digital...

I'm just a wanna-be electronics guy. I do a lot with RC aircraft and batteries also. My dad was the Old Electronics Guy;)

Blue Skies... Tom


Once the plane takes off, you're gonna have to land - Might as well jump out!!

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TEB6363

Quick note to watch that some of the internet substitute batteries do not perform well - or not at all.. ... Now, there are so many brands out there - some will probably work great. I just decided to go back to the manufacture-recommended brands for their equipment... I can get months/year out of my audible and digital...



Agreed. The nice thing about buying batteries from an electronics distributor is that you can stick with brand-name batteries, and the prices are still very good. And the product specifications are right there on the product's page.

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kawisixer01

Make sure you only buy Panasonic for L&B stuff. According to them Panasonic is the only magical battery that their altis will run on.



Nice data point, thanks. And the good news is that Panasonic batteries are prominent at electronics distributors.

Perhaps we can use this thread to get a lot of feedback like yours for what works well for the various devices.

By the way, I just did some searching on the Mouser Electronics web site and saved this link, which is basically, all the Panasonic "coin cells".

(Note: this link works today, but may not work in the future, and will give different results!)

http://www.mouser.com/Panasonic/Power/Batteries/Coin-Cell-Battery/CR-Series/_/N-965wk?P=1z0y6zbZ1yzvjj0Z1yzvebp&Keyword=coin+cell&FS=True

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kawisixer01

Make sure you only buy Panasonic for L&B stuff. According to them Panasonic is the only magical battery that their altis will run on.



The optima II manual says to use Renata brand.
People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

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sundevil777

The optima II manual says to use Renata brand.



Well, just in case it matters, Mouser sells a number of Renata batteries too. (Renata brand may be recommended because they are of known quality.)

Keep sending information folks. Maybe we can get a Moderator to make this thread a "sticky" for a while.

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L&B recommends panasonic for their devices with CR 2330 batteries (ProTrack), and renata for their devices with CR 2325 batteries (Optima, Solo, Viso, Ares.....).

I bought a pack of 10 Renata batteries in eBay for 15€. A pack of 2 in many skydiving related stores costs 7€-10€.

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Unless they are fake batteries.

I bought a few Chinese 6000mAh 18650 cells once, after characterizing one of them at rated current, the capacity turned out to only be around 250mAh.

Not sure if there's a large market for fake coin cells, but it's certainly a possibility.

Regarding performance, Maxell's CR2032 datasheet suggests that they have the flattest discharge curve of all, staying at 3V till the very end.

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uer16

Unless they are fake batteries.

I bought a few Chinese 6000mAh 18650 cells once, after characterizing one of them at rated current, the capacity turned out to only be around 250mAh.

Not sure if there's a large market for fake coin cells, but it's certainly a possibility.

Regarding performance, Maxell's CR2032 datasheet suggests that they have the flattest discharge curve of all, staying at 3V till the very end.

Very good point. :)
I bet Maxell's datasheet is probably a bit more trustworthy.

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I agree comletely. Panasonic is probably one of the the most serious brands. Nothing looks more than good batteries than cheap ones. The answer to check them is having a multimeter including batteries voltage measurement mode. Avoid doing it with just DC voltage mode. But the reading is a bit tricky. For instance, if the battery voltage reads less than 1 volt for a 1.5 volt one, it's time to change it.;)

Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

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Most of the time that's not a very accurate method. Very good batteries (like Maxell) maintain rated voltage regardless of them being at 5% or 95% capacity. You can't determine anything useful from a voltage measurement.

If the voltage does drop substantially as they are drained (Panasonic ones do, for example), then you can load them at rated load (15k ohm for Panasonic) and measure voltage at one of the temperatures that the cell was tested at (-10C, 20C, or 60C). Then try to match the measured voltage to the discharge curve from the datasheet. Basically too much work to be worth it.

Best bet is to just replace them every X amount of hours, they're basically free compared to jump tickets anyways.

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